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Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce

  • October 13, 2025

    9th Circuit Affirms Judgment For Car Maker In ‘Lambo’ Cybersquatting Dispute

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found no error in an Arizona federal judge’s grant of summary judgment to Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. (Lamborghini) in a cybersquatting dispute with a web domain holder, agreeing that the attempt to sell the domain “lambo.com” to the luxury carmaker for $75 million was indicative of bad faith.

  • October 10, 2025

    9th Circuit Tosses Appeal As Lacking Jurisdiction In Anti-SLAPP Online Review Row

    SAN FRANCISCO — An en banc Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Oct. 9 dismissed for lack of jurisdiction an interlocutory appeal by a digital marketing agency and its owner of a lower court order denying a motion to strike under the California anti-SLAPP statute related to counterclaims for defamation and libel for online reviews in a suit alleging violations of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) related to a dispute over parking spaces, finding no jurisdiction because the order denying the motion to strike was not a final appealable order.

  • October 09, 2025

    NYC Sues Meta, TikTok, Google For ‘Negligence’ Over Youth ‘Mental Health Crisis’

    NEW YORK — New York City and its school district and hospitals on Oct. 8 sued Meta Platforms Inc., Snap Inc., TikTok Inc. and Google LLC and related parties in New York federal court, asserting claims for nuisance and negligence related to social media addiction and the “mental health crisis” of New York City youth that the plaintiffs assert was “caused or contributed to by the design and operation of Defendants’ social media platforms.”

  • October 08, 2025

    Judge Tosses Athletics Fansite Copyright Suit Against Sports Fan Page Company

    ABERDEEN, Miss. — A Mississippi federal judge on Oct. 7 dismissed without prejudice a copyright infringement suit alleging that a company that maintains Facebook fan pages for U.S. professional and college sports violated the intellectual property rights of a Mississippi State University internet fansite, finding that the court lacks personal jurisdiction over the suit because the fansite failed to show that the fan page company is “subject to personal jurisdiction” in Mississippi.

  • October 07, 2025

    Order To Quash Subpoena Issued In Suit Seeking Website Operator’s Identity

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted nonparty John Doe’s motion to quash a subpoena issued to website security company Cloudflare Inc., requiring it to produce information about the operators of a website that purportedly defamed a British citizen, finding that the citizen’s court filings and the motion to quash by Doe, a journalist who wrote for the site and wants to keep his identity secret, “make clear that the subpoena should be quashed.”

  • October 07, 2025

    U.S. Supreme Court Denies Google Stay Request In Epic Games Antitrust Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — For an application presented to Justice Elena Kagan that she referred to the court, the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 6 denied Google LLC and related entities’ request for a partial stay of a permanent injunction that Google says “completely” overhauls its app store, the Google Play Store (Play), pending disposition of Google’s petition for a writ of certiorari in an antitrust suit filed against it by Epic Games Inc. over Google’s removal of Epic’s Fortnite game from the Google Play Store.

  • October 07, 2025

    High Court Won’t Address Whether Uber Had Duty Of Care Toward Driver Or Customer

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 6 denied the petition for writ of certiorari of a rideshare company seeking review of a pair of Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decisions reversing federal district court rulings that the company did not owe a duty of care to two victims, one a victim of rape by someone posing as a rideshare driver and the other a victim of murder by rideshare customers.

  • October 06, 2025

    High Court Denies Online Service’s Cert Bid To Review Antitrust Standing Ruling

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 6 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by an online pharmacy monitoring service seeking review of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ affirmance of a lower court’s ruling denying the monitoring service’s motion for summary judgment based on a lack of standing in a suit against it alleging Sherman Act violations for a purported group boycott.

  • October 06, 2025

    U.S. High Court Won’t Decide Live Nation, Ticketmaster’s FAA Reach Questions

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 6 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by Live Nation Entertainment Inc. and Ticketmaster LLC asking whether the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) protects all or only certain arbitration agreements and whether the federal act preempts California’s severability doctrine.

  • October 06, 2025

    High Court Won’t Review California Bar Of Arbitration In Coinbase Hacking Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 6 denied cryptocurrency exchange operators’ petition for a writ of certiorari seeking review of a California state court ruling barring enforcement of its arbitration agreement with customers because the customers seek public injunctive relief under California’s unfair competition law (UCL), which the crypto company claimed undermined the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA).

  • October 03, 2025

    Meta’s Motion To Compel Arbitration Granted In Civil Rights Act ‘Retaliation’ Suit

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge granted Meta Platforms Inc.’s (formerly Facebook Inc.) motion to compel arbitration and to stay the proceedings by in a former employee’s suit asserting claims for violations of New York human rights laws and the U.S. Civil Rights Act for complaining about Meta’s treatment of female employees, finding that the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021 (EFAA) “does not preclude enforcement of the arbitration agreement” the former employee signed because the “case does not involve conduct that is alleged to constitute sexual harassment.”

  • October 02, 2025

    Federal Circuit Vacates PTAB Obviousness Finding For Social Media Map Patent

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled Oct. 1 that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) correctly held that a technology company’s substitute claims in a patent related to displaying social media posts on a geographic map satisfy the written description requirement under the Patent Act; however, the panel also decided that PTAB erred in its consideration of the obviousness of those substitute claims.

  • October 01, 2025

    YouTube Settles Trump 1st Amendment ‘Censorship’ Suit For $24.5 Million

    OAKLAND, Calif. — Parties agreed to a $24.5 million settlement in a putative class action filed in 2021 by President Donald J. Trump, individuals and putative class members against YouTube LLC and Sundar Pichai, CEO of its parent company, alleging that the plaintiffs were “de-platformed or censored” by having their content removed from YouTube.

  • October 01, 2025

    Family Cites Arbitration Win In Bid To Lift Stay On Chatbot Negligence Suit

    MARSHALL, Texas — One of two families suing Character Technologies Inc. and others over alleged harmful effects the company’s chatbots allegedly have on minors told a federal judge that they obtained a partial arbitral award and asked the court to lift the stay over their strict liability and negligence case.

  • October 01, 2025

    6th Circuit: Software Company’s Copyright, Trade Secret Claims Fail

    CINCINNATI — An Ohio federal judge properly granted summary judgment to a defendant software company on trade secret and copyright infringement claims, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held, finding that the plaintiff software company’s trade secret claims were time-barred and that it failed to substantiate its copyright claim.

  • September 30, 2025

    Sendit App Maker Sued By Government For Collecting Kids’ Data, Fake Messages

    LOS ANGELES — California-based Iconic Hearts Holdings Inc. was sued by the U.S. government for violating children’s privacy and for engaging in deceptive practices related to the popular Sendit app, including gathering children’s data without parental consent, inadequate disclosure of automatic renewals for memberships and misrepresenting the identity of the senders of purported personal messages sent to app users.

  • September 29, 2025

    Judge Partly Dismisses Trafficking Victim’s Suit Against PornHub Owners, Visa

    LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge on Sept. 26 issued two rulings, partly granting a motion to dismiss filed by owners and operators of pornography website PornHub and a separate motion to dismiss filed by Visa Inc., which processes payments for PornHub, both of which were accused of violating sex-trafficking laws and California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by monetizing child sex abuse material (CSAM) made of the plaintiff while she was a minor.

  • September 29, 2025

    Tech Companies, PTO Tell High Court PTAB Can Review Expired Patents

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Apple Inc., Google LLC, LG Electronics Inc. and an affiliate tell the U.S. Supreme Court in a pair of Sept. 26 briefs that it should reject a patent-holding company’s petitions for writs of certiorari because they raise arguments about the constitutionality of inter partes review (IPR) proceedings before the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that the high court has previously rejected.

  • September 29, 2025

    Justice Kagan Seeks Response To Google Stay Request In Epic Games Antitrust Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan on Sept. 26 requested a response to an application filed by Google LLC and related entities seeking a partial stay of a permanent injunction that Google says “completely” overhauls its app store, the Google Play Store (Play), pending disposition of Google’s petition for a writ of certiorari in an antitrust suit filed against it by Epic Games Inc. over Google’s removal of Epic’s Fortnite game from the Google Play Store.

  • September 26, 2025

    Trump Issues TikTok EO, Says Proposal ‘Resolves’ National Security ‘Concerns’

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald J. Trump on Sept. 25 issued an executive order (EO) stating that a proposed divestiture plan through which TikTok Inc.’s parent company China-based “ByteDance Ltd. and its affiliates will own less than 20 percent” of TikTok “resolves the national security concerns” outlined in the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, the enforcement of which had been paused as to TikTok through previous executive orders that prevented a ban on the popular social network absent a corporate ownership change.

  • September 26, 2025

    FTC Reaches $2.5 Billion Settlement In Suit Against Amazon Over Prime Charges

    SEATTLE — A Washington federal judge on Sept. 25 entered a stipulated final order applicable to Amazon.com Inc. and two of its executives requiring Amazon to pay $2.5 billion to  the Federal Trade Commission in its suit accusing Amazon and certain of its executives of tricking customers into enrolling in the automatically renewed Amazon Prime service and making it difficult to cancel.

  • September 25, 2025

    Class Suit Over ‘Deceptive’ Online Apartment Ads Dismissed For Lack Of Standing

    GREENBELT, Md. — In a sua sponte ruling, a Maryland federal judge on Sept. 24 dismissed a putative class action by two former apartment tenants alleging violations of Maryland consumer protection laws against the manager of a Maryland apartment complex for “deceptive advertising” on its website related to “hidden fees” that increase the monthly rental cost, finding that the plaintiffs lack standing and that the court lacks subject matter jurisdiction because the former tenants failed to sufficiently allege injury.

  • September 25, 2025

    Character Technologies Facing 3 More Suits Over Chatbots’ Harm To Minors

    Character Technologies Inc., its founders and related companies were hit with a trio of strict liability and negligence lawsuits claiming that the company’s artificial intelligence chatbots caused mental and physical harm to minors.  The suits, filed in federal courts in Colorado and New York federal courts, bring to six the number of known suits claiming harm to minors from the company’s chatbots.

  • September 24, 2025

    Judge Deems Manufacturer Private Figure In Libel Suit Against Web Report Publisher

    TAMPA, Fla. — A Florida federal judge granted in part a motion for partial summary judgment filed by a power tool manufacturer in its libel suit against the operator of a website that publishes reports about publicly traded companies, finding that the manufacturer is a private figure for purposes of libel and that statements on the website’s second published report about the manufacturer are actionable because they are based upon false facts.

  • September 23, 2025

    U.S. Moves To Participate In High Court Oral Arguments In ISP Infringement Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. government on Sept. 23 requested leave to participate in oral arguments when the U.S. Supreme Court considers whether the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred when it found an internet service provider (ISP) was liable for contributory infringement for piracy actions from internet users; the government previously filed an amicus curiae brief in support of the ISP.